<p>I've spent about 3 weeks on this board and still don't get it - what does it mean when you talk about different "tiers" for schools?</p>
<p>Can you give me a "vocab for dummies" lesson? Is their a place to go and see what "tier" your schools of choice are in?</p>
<p>First tier--your top 20-50 schools.
Second Tier--the next 20-50 schools etc.<br>
Opinions vary as how large a tier may be. US News has theirs.</p>
<p>So then, tiering is somewhat relative and based on some "opinion" - "best" depends on what's "best" for you child/family in my opinion...</p>
<p>Yes, and most here equate "best" with highly ranked etc vs best for your kid which is much more subjective.</p>
<p>I'm guessing our school choices aren't in those top tiers but they are excellent choices for D. I guess we can always be curious which top schools she could get in, but I don't want to play that game. LIke many things in life, there are man choices that can be "right" for you - it's what you decide to do with your "choice" that reflects on you in the end...</p>
<p>US News ranks schools in particular categories (National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, etc.) In each category, it ranks the schools by quartiles, with the top two quartiles called the "top" schools (and the schools within that tier rank ordered) and the remaining schools in the third or fourth tier. These schools are listed alphabetically within their tier, rather than rank ordered.</p>
<p>Most of the references to tiers on this site reflect, to some degree, those rankings.</p>
<p>Good on you abasket! That is the right way to go. No one answer is the only answer in this case.</p>
<p>abasket: Neither of my sons applied to schools that would have been "reach" schools for them. Not even one. There really was no point because both were (are) seeking merit scholarships. So, don't feel bad about wondering what schools she "could" have gotten into. Doesn't matter one bit in the end.</p>
<p>That's an excellent point, Weenie. My D didn't apply to any "reach" schools, either. We, also, were looking for merit $. My D looked for schools where her scores would be considered "high". Her scores, along with the rigor of her courses (12 AP's by graduation) and gpa nabbed her a full tuition scholarship at an OOS uni. I agree, that it doesn't matter in the end. Unfortunately, I think sometimes people are too influenced by USNWR's rankings.</p>
<p>No reaches for us either. S only did 3 apps. all to large state universities, none of which are "top tiers". He also received scholarships. He is happy and doing well and is finding coursework plenty challenging at his "lower tier" school.</p>
<p>One thing tiers are useful for, imo, is suggesting where there MIGHT be merit aid for a given student. My son's list has 2 schools in the lower half of the top 100 (USN&WR). That's where he's gotten merit $$ so far and I expect he'll get little to none from those in the top 25.</p>
<p>Its all based on the USNews rankings so this tier talk is rather arbitrary at best.</p>
<p>I think that US news has its uses
It does help to know what the application/admission rate is- to know what the average GPA/SAT score for example.
But be sure and develop your own criteria- as "tiers" is a marketing device for the various authors of studies/polls/rankings</p>